Tom Kerpert-k9 Shut Eye Dog/Cat Sleeping Place

At Design Interviews

Interview with Tom Kerpert : Frank Scott: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?. Tom Kerpert : To provide a save, comfortable sleeping place for dogs and cats .Frank Scott: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?. Tom Kerpert : A comfortable place for the animal to rest combined with easy maintanance and durability for the owner .Frank Scott: What are your future plans for this award winning design?. Tom Kerpert : Expansion to overseas markets .Frank Scott: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?. Tom Kerpert : The project took about 4 month from concept to final tooling .Frank Scott: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?. Tom Kerpert : The design was comissioned by a client to design a completely new concept for a sleeping place .Frank Scott: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?. Tom Kerpert : The design is currently in production in South Africa, licensing will be available .Frank Scott: What made you design this particular type of work?. Tom Kerpert : The end product had to be acceptable by both clients, dog and owner, easy maintainable, easy produceable and visually pleasing inside a dwelling .Frank Scott: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work?. Tom Kerpert : no .Frank Scott: Who is the target customer for his design?. Tom Kerpert : Any dog or cat owner .Frank Scott: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?. Tom Kerpert : Ease of production, ease of maintenance, 100% recyclable, strong visual impact .Frank Scott: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?. Tom Kerpert : K9 Shut Eye was created during a brain stroming session with the client .Frank Scott: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?. Tom Kerpert : CAD solid modelling and Stereolithography for design evaluation .Frank Scott: What is the most unique aspect of your design?. Tom Kerpert : The ergonomic shape of the design modeled on the animals sleeping position .Frank Scott: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills?. Tom Kerpert : The design was completely created in-house right to the final CAD model for tooling .Frank Scott: What is the role of technology in this particular design?. Tom Kerpert : Rotamoulding provided an economical way to produce this particular design .Frank Scott: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?. Tom Kerpert : The main challange was to ensure that the original concept was easely mouldable with simple tooling .Frank Scott: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?. Tom Kerpert : Having won product of the year by ARMSA I decided to submit my design to an international audience .